Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne LIVE - Large peloton together but big name sprinters dropped as riders enter race’s endgame
The peloton tackles 13 climbs across 194km of racing on day two of Opening Weekend
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2026 - Everything you need to know
Race situation
- Large peloton together with all the climbs completed
- Sprinters Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché) in a distant chasing group having been dropped earlier
Two groups have clipped off the front, in echelon formation.
Splits are happening in the peloton! It's been caused by Visma, capitalising on the wind.
With Milan and Magnier missing from this group, Jasper Philipsen is surely now the favourite for the win. Here he was earlier attacking on one of the climbs - he's looked very strong all day.
There looks to be at least 60 riders in this lead group.
That's it, the group has been brought back. We have a large peloton together for the race finale.
The Decathlon-led peloton is bearing down on them. This looks like it's about to all come back together.
Decathlon are leading the chase in the group behind.
Berckmoes and Álvarez also appear to be in this group.
This group are 15 seconds ahead of the rest of the peloton, and about 15 seconds behind the leading break.
Also in this group are Brennan, Politt, Trentin, Canal, Van Baarle and Abrahamsen, among others.
Kielich has been brought back.
Three of them are Visma riders, one of whom, Timo Kielich, has attacked on the descent.
It's actually more like 15 riders than 20.
No attacks went clear on the climb, but the peloton is now reduced to only about 20 riders.
Girmay has been dropped on the climb, as has Groves
Just one more climb to come now, the 1.1km, 5.9% Kluisberg.
That's it, they've been brought back. There's still about 60 riders in this peloton.
Red Bull are leading the chase in the peloton, and the days of this sextet look numbered.
And now Mikkel Honoré becomes the sixth rider in that group.
Riley Sheehan has joined the quartet.
With Magnier in te distant dropped group, Van Baarle has licence to attack.
Now Van Baarle and Kielich have been joined by Mohoric and Hoole.
Van Baarle and Kielich of Visma-Lease a Bike have a small lead on the peloton.
Dylan van Baarle is one of those riders, and leads the group over the top.
Now Decathlon take it up, and is taking a small group with him.
A Visma rider accelerates, but doesn't manage to get away.
Visma lead the peloton towards the climb, before Alpecin take over at its foot.
The Milan/De Lie/Magnier group is 1:20 behind the peloton. That's a lot of ground to make up - they might be falling out of contention for the win, even with the long flat section to the finish.
Here's the peloton, with Biniam Girmay still safely in it.
The peloton has bridged up to that escape group. Despite the presence of three Red Bull riders and three from Decathlon, they were unable to work well enough together.
Brennan has also joined this breakaway group/
That trio has been joined by a Red Bull rider, Pithie, and now a third Decathlon rider, Andersen.
Two Decathlon riders are with Philipsen - Hoole and Bol.
Philipsen accelerates again, just like he did on the last climb.
Detathlon lead the reduced peloton onto the climb, with several Alpecin riders behind them.
Decathlon have four riders at the front of the peloton as they approach the climb, including their sprinter and leader Tobias Lund Andresen.
Milan, De Lie and Magnier are among those not to have made it back yet. Sprinters like Girmay and Groves have made it, though.
There looks to be about 40 or 50 riders in the peloton now.
The front peloton is much bigger now, as some of the chasing groups have rejoined.
There's now just three climbs left to complete.
Another ten or so riders have joined that group, and more groups are close behind and will hope to join shortly.
Up ahead, about ten riders have joined Philipsen and Mohoric.
Arnaud De Lie is struggling at the back too, despite all the work done by his Lotto team on the previous climb.
Milan is right at the back of the peloton and struggling to hold on.
Matej Mohorič is onto Phlipsen's wheel.
Paul Magnier is being dropped out of the back of the peloton - he has a puncture.
In fact, Philipsen has opened up a gap over the peloton on this climb!
Now Jasper Philipsen takes over at the front, and is looking very strong.
Matej Mohorič is active at the front of the peloton and leads the peloton onto the climb.
Yesterday's runner-up Tim van Dijke is off the front by a few bikelengths.
Lotto have swung off, and if the vacuum left riders are attacking, with Visma and Red Bull especially active.
Riders have been dropped out of the peloton as a result of Lotto's pace.
Lotto Intermarché are really laying the hammer down on this climb in the peloton, significantly upping the pace.
Ryan Mullen (NSN) has become he latest rider to abandon the race, after being dropped riding up Hameau des Papins.
The peloton has bunched up again, at least towards the front of the group, with Alpecin and Lidl among the teams represented.
The peloton is all stretched out after the acceleration from Visma-Lease a Bike.
And now the pace is much higher, as Visma-Lease a Bike take to the front.
At the same time, the pace is high enough for some to start being dropped out of the peloton.
Things calm down in the peloton as they begin the climb. Jonathan Milan is right at the front, and the pace is slow enough for him to adjust his rain jacket.
The pace is really up in the peloton as they approach the foot of the climb! Alpecin-Premier Tech win the fight for position, and lead them onto it.
Sean Christian (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling) has also abandoned as a result of the Wellens crash.
And now there’s been another crash, sprinter Tom Crabbe and Silvan Dillier among the fallers. Things are clearly very tense in the peloton.
As runner-up from two years ago, Tim Wellens would have been another rider to look out for to try and break out of the peloton on the final climbs. We’ll have to wait and see if he can recover from this fall.
There’s been a crash in the peloton, and about a dozen riders have gone down, including Tim Wellens.
As we approach the decisive climbs of the race, which riders can we expect to launch attacks?
Visma-Lease a Bike’s Christope Laporte is one to watch. He looked great on the Muur yesterday, and has made the top eight in each of the last three editions of this race; and though normally he’d wait for a sprint, the fact he’s riding alongside fast-finisher Matthew Brennan, and the quality of the sprint field competing today, means he’s likely to take more of a front-foot approach this time.
As well as his Unibet Rose Rockets teammate Rory Townsend, Elmar Reinders has also abandoned the race.
“It's far from the last climbs to the finish line”, Naesen added, “so I would expect to see a select peloton fighting for the sprint, maybe half of the guys from the start."
He agreed that the absence of Mathieu van der Poel changes everything, "but I can imagine Mathieu in the bus last night asking himself do I really want to go on a 65 kilometre solo, ‘cos that's what he'd need to do to win this race, and that's not going to make for a comfortable Sunday."
Oliver Naesen also spoke to Cyclingnews today before the race. A veteran of a huge number of Classics, Naesen is always one of the most insightful members of the peloton into one-day racing, and he views Kuurne as "being a battle between offensive Classics riders and sprinting Classics riders."
The teams of sprinters Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) are among those showing their faces at the front of the peloton.
BOSSENAARSTRAAT
We’re entering a new phase of the race, as they take on the Bossenaarstraat, the first of three climbs in quick succession.
And now another rider has fallen - Josh Burnett of the Burgos Burpellet BH team.
Townsend has abandoned the race, becoming the first DNF of the day.
Talking of crashes, more news has come in from yesterday’s chaotic Omloop - and it’s bad news for Stefan Küng. The Swiss classics specialist is set to miss the rest of the Spring after suffering a heavy fall.
There’s been a crash in the peloton involving a few riders, Rory Townsend seemingly the worst off.
At long last, after such a resillient chase, Adrià and Ingebrigtsen have joined the front group. Chapeau for the effort!
Regarding whether he'll have his own chance, Groves said "We always go into it to work to deliver the best result for the team, and in that case it's Jasper in a sprint. But if it's an attacking final, we also need numbers in the front and that's probably a role of mine.
With defending champion Jasper Philipsen in their line-up, and having won yesterday’s Omloop with Mathieu van der Poel, there will be an onus on Alpecin-Premier Tech to control this race and bring the breakaway back. One of their riders, Kaden Groves, spoke to Cyclingnews this morning:
“It was a really difficult stage yesterday, with the weather and all that, so we have to see how the legs are, but we think it's gonna be a pretty chaotic race with the wind."
140KM TO GO
The peloton has well and truly sat up now, allowing the leading five an advantage of 2:25. In between, Adrià and Ingebrigtsen are still soldiering on, but are finding they can't close the deficit of 25 seconds between themselves and the leaders.
Adrià and Ingebrigtsen, trying to join the leaders.
150KM TO GO
The five leaders are 1:10 up on the peloton, while Adrià and Ingebrigtsen continue to dangle 20 seconds adrift.
Things haven’t fully calmed down in the peloton yet. There was a flurry of attackers trying to break and clear and attempt to bridge up to the leaders, but that move has been shut down.
The five riders up the road, who appear to have succeeded in forming the day's break.
Meanwhile Adrià is still trying to join them with his compaion, Storm Ingebrigtsen. The pair are just 15 seconds behind.
It seems the peloton has at last sat up - the break's lead is up to over a minute.
Biniam Girmay has had to stop for a mechanical.
160KM TO GO
The five-man break are now 23 seconds up on the peloton, and 16 ahead of Roger Adrià, who has also been joined by another rider.
And now Roger Adrià is setting off in pursuit of the five leaders. He's the kind of bigger name the peloton may deem too dangerous to let go.
They've been joined by Johan Jacobs and Frits Biesterbos. This is looking promising.
Three riders have managed to go clear and build a small lead - Dries De Bondt, Cole Kessler and Matis Louvel.
Those ten attackers have succeeded in going clear, and the race is all back together again.
Ten attackers started the climb with a small gap over the peloton.
Attacks are being made as they climb the first obstacle of the day, the 1.4km, 3.6% Tiegemberg.
TIEGEMBERG
With the final third of the race being completely flat without any bergs, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne is a frontloaded race, and it won’t belong already until they reach the first of the day’s 13 climbs - the Tiegemberg.
Dries De Bondt tried to attack right from the get-go, but no break has formed yet.
Incidentally, the Tudor rider mentioned who broke his teeth, Rick Pluimers, was down to start today, but (understandably) has pulled out, along with his teammate Aivaras Mikutis. That leaves Tudor with just five starters.
The rain might mostly have held off yesterday, but that didn’t curtail the number of incidents, in what Arnaud De Lie described as being “the most dangerous Omloop of my life.” We summarised some of the fall-out from all of the drama.
It’s dry at the start for now, but the forecasts suggest that rain could potentially have a factor later in the day.
The riders are on the move, making their way through the neutralised zone. They’ll be racing before long.
One such sprinter is Jasper Philipsen, pictured here at the start with Dylan Groenewegen, and the Belgian is hoping to defend his title after the success of his teammate Van der Poel yesterday.
The majority of the riders who competed at yesterday’s Omloop Nieuwsblad are present again today, although the parcours is more suited towards sprinters. That’s reflected in what is a more sprinter-heavy start list, featuring some of the fastest finishers in the world.
After sealing victory yesterday on what was his first race of the road season, Mathieu van der Poel is sitting this one out, paving the way for what looks set to be an open race.
If you haven’t already caught up with what happened during yesterday’s dramatic, incident-packed Omloop Nieuwsblad, be sure to read our report covering all the thrills and spills.
Coming up fast after yesterday’s Omloop Nieuwsblad, we’re back in the Belgian countryside for the second installment of Opening Weekend - Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.
Hello and welcome to the 2026 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne!
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